beige_alert | great newspaper headline of the day

There is an Alterra coffee shop located near Lake Michigan in an old building formerly used by the sewerage district for pumping lake water into the river to dilute the sewage they used to dump directly into the river even when it wasn’t raining. It’s a wonderfully funky old building and Alterra has done very nice things with it. Part of the building was supposed to be a sort of sewage museum. This article, which is available online, explains that the displays haven’t really happened due to lack of money and time. They got not one but two really great headlines out of it, the first the comparison “Coffee shop has more perk than sewer display,” the second, inside where the article continues, “Alterra Cafe a big hit; sewer museum falters.” Somehow, when they put it that way, it seems inevitable that the coffee shop would be a bigger hit. The best display was supposed to be a $91,000 model of the deep tunnel system that broke. The tunnel system doesn’t work so well, either.

I’ve written about the shop before, and although I really like the building and the location I’m not as impressed by the product. Their sandwiches are plain yet expensive and the mocha drinks have less chocolate flavor and more coffee flavor than I like, though, of course, your taste may vary.